Well, if one must wait for a delayed TGV, this is surely how to do it – sinking into a leather armchair beneath chandeliers and gilt, in the quiet splendour of Le Train Bleu. 10€ may seem steep for a double shot of caffeine – even a Finca El Platanillo 100% Guatemalan Arabica, cultivated at 1450m – but context is everything – and here, nestled into a leather armchair at Le Train Bleu, you are not paying for coffee so much as an experience.

Besides, you get a free madeleine on the side, and with a single shot at €7, the double almost counts as thrift. Almost.

In this echo of another age, even a delay becomes something almost deliberate – an invitation to linger rather than rush. Opened in 1901 for the Universal Exhibition, Le Train Bleu is a showcase of Belle Époque grandeur and Beaux-Arts theatricality… painted ceilings, sculpted cherubs, and a setting that once welcomed travellers bound for the Riviera, Cairo, and Constantinople.

There is time, here. And perhaps that is the rarest luxury of all.